Revenge films are in vogue. And as much as I enjoy Denzel Washington exacting vengeance in the genre classic Man on Fire, or laugh at the studios coming up with another excuse for Liam Neeson to hunt down his targets in Taken 3, or look forward to Mads Mikkelsen taking a break from chewing up the scenery in Hannibal to provide some vengeance spaghetti Western style in The Salvation; I find the genre pretty forgettable. With no shortage of such films the question is what makes Blue Ruin memorable?

Writer/Director Jeremy Saulnier deserves most of the credit by focusing the story on someone completely lacking the “special set of skills” that Neesson is constantly highlighting.… Read the rest